a) Corbett never intended to indict Eachus, who potentially was much more valuable to the future Governor as a grateful and indebted Democratic Leader than as a defendant, and the invitation to testify was a ruse intended to deflect questions about the the incriminating evidence Corbett never intended to reveal.

b) Corbett did intend to indict Eachus, but someone or something deterred him.

61 comments:

Not a guess, but an observation: Unlike self important Bill DeWeese, Todd Eachus knew enough to keep his head down, shut up and maintain a very low profile. btw, Bill: just keep talking, pal. I predict a new six year contract for you!

The OAG seems to be putting less and less effort into all this - after the big publicity payoff, it was a whole lot of work. AG Kelly should really consider if its at all fair to have invested thousands of staff hours in investigating House Ds, but letting the very same infractions go for both sides of the Senate, and Eachus too.

If Feese had more counts, and Feese was involved in a much, much more expensive crime (like $10 million), and Feese actually obstructed justice, which AG Corbett said was the worst of all, how come he got 4 years and Veon got 6? If Feese gets 4, and Veon gets 6, the two disgraced former Speakers should get more.

Increasingly, the corruption scandal is viewed more as a judicial concern than a legislative one, but it was legislative misconduct that made prosecutors' track record possible.

Twenty-one of the 25 people arrested — all connected to the House Democratic and Republican caucuses — were convicted or have pleaded guilty. Only two were acquitted.

Charges against another were dropped. One defendant, ex-Rep. Stephen Stetler of York County, is awaiting trial.

Former House Democratic whip Mike Veon is serving a six- to 14-year prison term — the harshest sentence imposed so far.

He faces a separate trial next week on charges of misusing grant money distributed to a nonprofit he ran in his former Beaver County district.

The attorney general's office has not officially closed the investigation, but more than two years have passed since the last arrests.

Unfinished business appears to consist mainly of the sentencing of three Democratic defendants, including DeWeese, and the seven GOP defendants who pleaded guilty, who include former House Speaker John Perzel of Philadelphia.

Would-be government reformers had hoped that the investigation launched in 2007 would be a launch pad for at least some of statutory changes they championed, such as legislative term limits, campaign contribution limits and a ban on gifts from lobbyists, but none came close to winning majority support.

In 2010, a grand jury that investigated the corruption scandal issued a scathing report that labeled the Legislature "irretrievably broken" and called for sweeping changes, but few of its proposals were adopted.

It is clear now that Grand Jury was used by Corbett to become Governor, nothing else.

Soon, an awkward situation, difficult mishap and unforeseen event that will disrupt Governor Tom Corbett's normal course of things and this inopportune occurrence resulting from a small disagreement will be rather embarrassing.

The Hypocracy of the Republican Party and it's AG/Governor Corbett is finally coming to public light. The Republican mottos - "do as I say, not as I do" and "I'll say anything to get elected and won't let the truth get in the way of a good campaign stratedy" - are coming back to bite them. People are finally starting to call them out, even the Republican Controlled Tribune Review recently noted Corbetts campaign against the Spector Library Grant and then approved the grant funding while cutting funding for basic education which results in local school taxes being increased. And the Republican controlled legislature supported his hypocritical agenda buy approving his first budget without any republican party house or senate objection. Look at the so called "conservative" or "fiscal responsible" members like Turzai, Reese, Kreiger, Evankovich, Dunbar, Ellis, Pyle, and Reed (only to mention a few). And not to mention that they all accept the perks and pay raises. This is an election year, let us not forget! Vote these bums out.

Yes Todd brought in Susan who is "one of the chief of staff" who is now punch drunk with power. Making sure to keep all her crew nicely paid with made up job titles and many have received nice pay bumps. It's funny also just how may people Todd gave the to hire while there were to be no job hires from the out side. Let's see a few. We have Mrs. Pheonix in HR who was Zane phoenix sister who was Todds right hand man when he was leader then we have Shawn Migarro in HR who is also related to someone in HR and Todd did them a favored then the you have the Biggica brother and sister Todd hired. I find it interesting that Todd did work for their dad (Russ) who is a lobbyist. Just all interedting. I just hope something happens to him as well. He is just as guilty as the rest. If not for bonusgate. Maybe for cash for kids or the cargo airport. Something. He is scum.

In some accounts that are currently being verified, Eachus's Outside Counsel Chris Casey and In House Counsel both urged the Indictment of Bill DeWeese so Eachus could remove him from Democratic Leadership.

Although these notes were alleged taken, they never were turned over, under Brady Case precedents this is extreme Prosecutors Misconduct charge that current US Supreme Court is looking to advance on Appeal to correct the many Wrongful Convictions happening throughout the US.

So you got what you wantWhat a nasty ambition!Set me up, pull me downThen exploit my conditionI should have guessed, womanThat if pressed, woman

You're on nobody's side but your own

And you're behavingLike a mere womanIt's so clear, woman --It's your sex!Once they start getting old and getting worriedThey let fly, take it outOn the one who supports them --That's you I'm talking about

Who'd ever think it?Such a squalid little endingWatching you descendingJust as far as you can goI'm learning things I didn't want to knowWho'd ever guess it?This would be the situation --One more observation --How'd we ever get this farBefore you showed me what you really are?

You'll be lost without meTo abuse like you're used to

Go away! Just get out! Be someone else's parasite!

I'm not the kind to be vindictiveHolding some childish grudgeHow could I be? I'm in the spotlightHalf of the world my judge

All I demand is those I work forThose I give all my skillsAll my time and painThose that I entertainGive me the same compassion in returnBut the fools never learn!

Today one of the defendants in the Sandusky case, which OAG really didn't investigate at all for years as it spent tens of thousands of hours investigating Mike Veon, filed an action to be dismissed because their indictment was based on testimony from the late Joe Paterno. The OAG says they "thought about" getting a deposition from Paterno (the 85 year old coach in failing health for past couple of years, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer), but didn't do it. Since the defense never got to cross examine him, his grand jury transcript, which was read into the record at preliminary hearing, is not admissable. If the AG loses that case because of this oversight, it reenergizes the issue of the poor underinvestigation in the Sandusky case. But hey, isn't that what happened regarding Eachus, Smith, McCall, Senate Rs and Ds, Mike Long and others?

Message to AG Kelly: Now would be a great time to go after Eachus, and the Senate. For the sake of justice, do it.

February 14, 2012 10:46 AM

AND FORMER AG - GOV. CORBETT TOO! MAYBE SPEAKER "I'll use the DeWeese I didn't know defense" SMITH TOO! AND LET US NOT FORGET LEADERS TURZAI AND REED FOR USING THE ILLEGALLY BEGOTTEN TAXPAYER PAID FOR CAMPAIGN PROGRAM - "Computergate".

The Brady Case Prevents The Prosecution From Destroying Notes, If The Notes Were Insignificant Then Why Destroy Them, Veon's Attorneys Should Immediate Move For A Ruling On Appeal And Go Directly To The Supreme Court.

When This Is All Over All Of Corbett's Attorney Generals Assistants Will Be Where Assistant Us Attorneys Are Now, Right Before The Justice System Themselves And One Already Committed Suicide.

All Of The Convictions Will Be Overturned And Vacated, And The Assistant Paoag Will Be Hiring Attorneys And Declaring Bankruptcy.

Some wrongful convictions are caused by honest mistakes. But in far too many cases, the very people who are responsible for ensuring truth and justice — law enforcement officials and prosecutors — lose sight of these obligations and instead focus solely on securing convictions.

The cases of wrongful convictions uncovered by DNA testing are filled with evidence of negligence, fraud or misconduct by prosecutors or police departments.

Common forms of misconduct by law enforcement officials include:

• Employing suggestion when conducting identification procedures

• Coercing false confessions

• Lying or intentionally misleading jurors about their observations

• Failing to turn over exculpatory evidence to prosecutors

• Providing incentives to secure unreliable evidence from informants

Common forms of misconduct by prosecutors include:

• Withholding exculpatory evidence from defense

• Deliberately mishandling, mistreating or destroying evidence

• Allowing witnesses they know or should know are not truthful to testify

• Pressuring defense witnesses not to testify

• Relying on fraudulent forensic experts

• Making misleading arguments that overstate the probative value of testimony

Necessary Oversight:

We need to find solutions to fix these problems.

One way to put checks on the enormous power of prosecutors and law enforcement officials would be to establish criminal justice reform commissions.

The other way is to hold prosecutors and their investigators to crimes without absolute immunity and prosecutes those that crossed the line.

Prosecutorial misconduct is one of the leading causes, or contributing causes, of wrongful convictions.

This paper contends that prosecutorial misconduct is not chiefly the result of isolated instances of unprincipled choices or the failure of character on the part of some prosecutors.

Rather, prosecutorial misconduct is largely the result of three institutional conditions: vague ethics rules that provide ambiguous guidance to prosecutors; vast discretionary authority with little or no transparency; and inadequate remedies for prosecutor misconduct.

These three conditions create perverse incentives for prosecutors to engage in, rather than refrain from, prosecutorial misconduct.

B. Sanctioning Prosecutors DirectlyOrdering a particular form of relief, such as dismissal of an indictment, maybe a practical necessity in a selective prosecution case, because there appears tobe no reasonable alternative for such a serious constitutional violation.Dismissal of charges, however, should not be available simply to deterprosecutorial misconduct. Courts should not rely on granting a particulardefendant relief to serve as a check on future prosecutorial actions in other casesexcept to the extent necessary to vindicate a specific constitutional protectionbreached by the prosecutorial misconduct. If a court’s goal is to send a messageto prosecutors, the message should not be communicated by granting adefendant relief without consideration of the harm that the misconduct caused tothe defendant. The constitutional protections belong to individuals, not to courtsfor use as a means to police the conduct of prosecutors. While deterrence ofmisconduct may be an appealing rationale for dismissing a case, noconstitutional basis exists for employing a remedy to address an institutionalproblem that did not result in an unfair proceeding or an unsupported verdict.437

I honestly cannot believe Angela Bertugli is still employed by the House democratric caucus. She has testified at the grand jury, at the Bonusgate Trial, and now at the Big Trial that she spent her first 4 months on the House payroll doing grad school homework, that she was hired because she was having sex with Mike Manzo and that she got bonuses, presumably for good performance at the task for which she was hired? Note that after the scandal broke Bill DeWeese didn't fire her, Todd Eachus didn't fire her, and now Frank Dermody didn't fire her. After staffers testified they did political work on state time, hid it, and knowingly got bonuses for political work, they were not fired, did not have to forfeirt their bonuses and in many cases got promotions. After the legal Counsel got caught with boxes of evidence he never turned over implkicvating DeWeese, deWeese got indicted but the legal counsel remained. How can this be? This represents millions in wasted and corrupt expenditure of taxpayer dollars. here is Gene Stilp, Eric Epstein and the media?

The "unpunished" staffers who testified under oath they stole time, conspired to hid corruption, participated in the bonus scheme, or gave sex for hiring or promotions, should all have had to pay back what the took or the bonuses they got, and certainly those most responsible should be gone - but the Dem Caucus still hasn't done anything about it. In fact look at the jobs Tom Andrews, Bob Caton, Angela Bertugli, Karen Steiner, Paul Parsells, and on and on, have, it's crazy. But the press has expressed no interest at all. As they have no interest in any kind of investigation of the State Senate, especially the most obvious offenders in the GOP Senate caucus. Obviously they buy in to the idea Mike Veon deserves a second prosecution rather than going after the biggest bonus recepients and the most public political operatives on public time.

Now that a story has appeared questioning if Corbett still knows what is going on in the grand jury, which would be improper, it raises question whether the new AG continues to investigate the Senate, where the biggest bonuses were given to the most obviously political staffers at the highest levels who seemingly were most publicly doing political work out of state offices, I think even advertising their state phones to accept calls for paid political consulting work. Has the investigation gone on to all 4 caucuses wherever the evidence leads, or was there simply no evidence the Senate GOP caucus did anything wrong?

That Manzo/Mistress story is just outrageous. I don't care who he sleeps with, but I don't want to pay for it. He must pay back not just his bonuses, but the ones he awarded to both his wife and his mistress, and every cent of state pay his state employed mistress got. I don't want to pay his pension, or his state paid mistressespension. If she testifies she was hired and paid (not to mention bonused) to sleep with him any time the state paid to bring her to Harrisburg, or him to Pittsburgh, shouldn't he be charged with running a prostitution operation too?

The most surprising "where the evidence" leads testimony never investigated was the under oath statement by an AG called felon/witness that the very illegal acts he did for Veon was the same things he was doing for House Speaker McCall for more than a year after Veon left the House. The very same illegal activity, except continuing even after the investigation was well known, provable in the very same investigative manner the charges Veon and that defendant were convicted of were proven. But Veon is in jail for 6 years and McCall serves as a high paid appointee to, for goodness sake, the Gaming Control Board that regulates casinos.

Feds are now investigating the Penn State Trustees and Second Mile, providing "Hush Money" to the victims, under AG Corbett and crack PAOAG Staff and Investigators.

Once the Trustees and Second Mile contributions come under the Federal Grand Jury and match up to AG Tom Corbett's For Governor Campaign groups and listing and are granted Immunity Governor tom and some at the PAOAG may be under investigation and arrested sooner than they think too.

In any event, Corbett smells like a rotten fish either way rather for his past deeds of breaking the law to become Governor...

Or...

Corbett inability to win a second term.

Not a good thing to be happening just when the Presidential Pennsylvania Primary will be here on April 24 and the candidates for President on the Republican side will have to talk about Tome Corbett's complicity.

I do not see revenge coming, I see a rescanning coming, and it is heading right for the Center of the Republican Party and will take off Corbett's Head and some Judges in Dauphin County.

Hats off to the Pitt BOT ... They met on Friday, and were very critical of the budget that Gov. Corbett proposed. They passed a resolution indicating:

"To take such steps as are necessary to protect the overall quality and strength of the university in the face of a proposed escalation in the withdrawal of state support."

The proposal also stated:

"the apparent lack of support for public higher education within the current [state] administration."

State Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis, attended Friday's meeting as a nonvoting member of Pitt's board. After the resolution was passed, he asked to address the board. He said he took "great exception" to the characterization and said his boss and the administration do in fact support higher education.

Trustee John Pelusi Jr. appeared to take issue with Mr. Tomalis' assessment of the state's treatment of higher education. "The math doesn't add up with no disrespect to the secretary," Mr. Pelusi said.

I doubt the passage of the resolution will do much by itself. However, it's nice to see the Pitt BOT call the Governor and his administration on their proposal.

A link to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about this is below.

Tom Corbett may be under investigation before he gets a chance to run again.

Gov. Tom Corbett, who has been pretty guarded in what he says about the ongoing state grand jury investigation, recently said something different, according to two State College reporters.

Corbett is constantly reminding inquiring minds that he’s bound by secrecy rules and can’t discuss or divulge a lot of what he knows about the child sex abuse investigation he started three years ago when he was state attorney general.

But this month, when Corbett unveiled his budget plan for this year, he did a round of television interviews where he discussed some aspects of the scandal that has engulfed Penn State and Sandusky’s statewide children’s charity.

In at least two of those interviews, reporters say, Corbett made statements that The Second Mile is not under investigation.

How does Corbett know that?

Grand juries are conducted in secret, and law-enforcement officials — police, prosecutors and investigators — are barred by law from talking about it.

The television reports — from WJAC and WTAJ, both serving State College — use the present tense to describe Corbett’s comment. Both reporters said Friday that they stand by their reports as accurate.

Corbett’s spokesman, Kevin Harley, angrily denied that the governor was talking about the current investigation.

In any event, Corbett has some explaining to do and now before a Federal Grand Jury????

The bigger trouble for the Office of the Attorney General is more at issue than a computer glitch releasing the grand jury presentment prematurely is the shoddy quality of the document itself and the reckless intent with which it was written.

This article is, I think, referring to what the University was told in relation to Gricar's 1998 investigation.

Schultz is on the record as saying that he had been informed of the investigation.

I believe that the feds now want to know what was told, who was told, and when.

Seems more likely to me than seemingly honest people with good track records all of a sudden deciding to cover up for a pedophile. I would like to know the truth and how Corbett helped them cover the truth.

The backpedaling by spokespersons for both Corbett and Kelly confirm the seriousness of his statement that SM was not under investigation. He screwed up.

His statements were in the present tense to 2 different media outlets. Please give them the courage to press the matter.

IF he meant the past tense, it doesn't really matter to me since SM was the obvious focal point all along. JS was working through SM in both 2002 and 2008. He retired from PSU in 1999. SM should have been the starting point. If stuff later led them to PSU, so be it.

The Freeh report was never going to be fine. An august body that hires an investigator to investigate themselves is never the way to go. Ever. They must have thought that we were all idiots when they did this.

Then to throw in the condition that the BOT gets to review the report before it's release, and it's obvious this whole thing was a charade. The question is, what were they afraid he was going to find?

Freeh is pouring gasoline all over Old Main as we speak. The feds had better hurry.

The FEDS need to up their gametime is of the essence.

Oh boy, I absolutely think there is so much truth to this.

The Freeh investigation is an absolute joke and the Sandusky thing is EVERYTHING but a PSU football scandal.

It's far reaching and will include politics and Gonna get ugly folks...

"If Joe could speak from the grave here with his notes, to let the world know the true story, it would be apocalyptic for Corbett."

Joe had a chance to speak when he was alive - and didn't...he cared more for his precious program than for innocent children...be assured that his soul is burning in hell...next to his buddy Bishop Bevalaqua.

I'm confused on something, maybe Casablanca can assist. What is the schedule for the Stetler trial, and the sentencing of DeWeese (the guy actually in charge), of Manzo (the guy who testified he was the mastermind of bonuses) and Perzel?

Still wondering how the House Democrats can keep on staff that publicly testified to deeply implicate themselves, including in the bonus scheme, with no punishment, no bonus pay backs, nothing. Dermody should now answer for that.

Today a story sources Sam Rohrer as saying Gov. Corbett threatened state jobs if Republican State Committee members didn't vote to endorse the Gov's preferred candidate for US Senate. Is that true? Because if it is, isn't that a violation of law, a conflict of interest, misue of his state office? Let's see if Sam Rohrer is brave and upright enough to follow through to enforce the law.

This is a great Spring - I am having a ball with this Orie trial. And then we have a bunch of nice sentencing coming up. Payjacker Perzel - finally, Payjacker Veon - again thankfully. And old Payjacker Billy Blabbermouth gets his own cage assignment. Recommend they get assigned to Guantanamo, even if we have to let less dangerous terrorists out to fit them in.

Keep going AG and Feds. We have a republicrat-made cesspool in PA and it stinks.

The Mellow plea areemet deserves some review. First, if the OAG was following the evidence wherever it might lead, it's surprising the never got to Mellow, or Fumo, or Musto, or Orie (who they got the first complaint about). Second, ok, even if they missed it the first time, it's impoossible to believe the feds wouldn't now require Mellow to fully cooperate with the AG ongoing 4 caucus probe now - since Mellow publicly has agreed to plead to the exact klind of politics/fundraising on state time and resources that sent Veon, Feese and Cott to prison, and for which Perzel and DeWeese face prison. How can all those staff folks in the House get charged, punished, etc., if the investigation doesn't apply to the Senate? Third, if as we've been told their is interest in a state investigation of gaming and licensing of casinos, recall Mellow was the Senator for and friend of Louie DeNaples. Finally, will this fed conviction take Mellow's $139,000 a year pension? If not, shouldn't AG at least get a guilty plea to an offense that would? Why take Veon, DeWeese, Feese, Perzel and bunch of lesser staff folks' pensions, but not 40 year Senator who put money in his pocket, served as Senate leader and Pro Temp, and has the highest pension of all. Now is the time to follow the evidence wherever it leads. Today you can find that evidence on page 1.